Police identified the pedestrian who was killed in a crash at a Camas intersection as 66-year-old Anneice B. Fich of Washougal.
Fich was pushing her great-grandson 2-year-old Eduardo “Lalo” Herrera-Berra in a stroller across Northeast Third Avenue at Weir Street just before 5 p.m. Tuesday when they were struck by an eastbound white Toyota Sequoia, according to the Camas Police Department.
Although authorities initially said that the toddler was uninjured, the 2-year-old was evaluated at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, where authorities learned he had broken ribs, a punctured lung and a fractured leg, police said Wednesday.
Tara Mickes, the boy’s grandmother and Fich’s stepdaughter from a previous marriage, said Fich had taken the child on a trip to the Dollar Tree to buy some last-minute holiday gifts when the collision occurred.
“You couldn’t have asked for a better grandma. Everybody in town knew and loved her,” she said. “She was so giving. She’d give her last dollar to anybody.”
Mickes said her grandson was expected to spend Wednesday night at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, where he was transferred, and that the family is doing its best to get through the tragedy that will keep them at the hospital on Christmas.
“He’s just hurting really bad. It’s Christmas,” Mickes said. The loss of Fich “is just heartbreaking,” but the fact that her grandson is alive is “some blessing in the whole thing.”
The driver of the truck, Thetford B. Moore, 60, of Washougal cooperated with investigators.
Police say that neither drugs nor alcohol were factors in the collision at the intersection, which has no traffic lights or marked crosswalks. According to state law, drivers are required to stop and remain stopped to allow a pedestrian or bicyclist to cross the roadway at an intersection, even if there’s no marked crosswalk.
Police continue to interview witnesses and are looking into whether there was any surveillance video of the incident, Camas police Sgt. Scot Boyles said.
No criminal charges have yet been filed, but Camas police continue to investigate the incident with the assistance of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office traffic homicide unit.
